1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a plasma display device and, more particularly, to a plasma display device that can efficiently dissipate heat from switching elements or integrated circuit modules arranged on circuit board assemblies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as a PDP) is a display panel in which vacuum ultraviolet rays generated by gas discharge in discharge cells excite phosphors to produce images. The PDP has display configurations, including superior display capacity, brightness, contrast, and a wide viewing angle. Further, it may be lightweight, thin, and have a large screen.
A plasma display device according to the related art has a PDP that displays images, a chassis base that supports the PDP, a plurality of driving circuit boards that are provided on the chassis base to face the PDP, and a case that houses the PDP, the chassis base, and the driving circuit boards.
The case has a front cover that is disposed in front of the PDP and a back cover that is disposed behind the PDP. Generally, the front cover and the back cover can be assembled to each other.
The circuit board assemblies mounted on the chassis base includes a power supply board, an image processing board, a logic board, an address buffer board, a sustain electrode driving board, a scan electrode driving board, and the like. Many integrated circuit modules and switching elements are mounted on the various boards.
The sustain electrode driving board and the scan electrode driving board may have switching elements or integrated circuit modules that control sustain electrodes and scan electrodes of the PDP. The switching elements or the integrated circuit modules provide high-frequency sustain pulses, thereby generating heat. Accordingly, for PDP operation, the switching elements or the integrated circuit modules that control the sustain electrodes and the scan electrodes need to be maintained at a proper temperature.
However, large currents which flow in the respective integrated circuit modules provided on the circuit board assemblies result in a significant amount of heat being generated. If the heat is not sufficiently dissipated to the outside, the integrated circuit modules may cease to operate properly.
Some conventional plasma display devices have a space between the back cover and the circuit board assembly, the space being hermetically sealed. In order to dissipate the heat from the circuit board assembly, a ventilation section, such as a fan, is provided to cause forced convection. This structure works well to dissipate heat. However, the noise generated from the fan inconveniences the user.
On the other hand, other plasma display devices use heat sinks instead of a fan, allowing heat to be dissipated from the circuit board assemblies through free convection. In certain PDPs, a heat sink is provided at one side of a switching element or an integrated circuit module mounted on a circuit board assembly via lead lines, thereby forming a heat dissipating structure with a heat sink mounted on the circuit board assembly. According to this structure, a one-directional heat dissipating path is formed through which the heat from the switching element or the integrated circuit module created by driving the PDP is transferred to the heat sink and the transferred heat is dissipated through the convection reaction in the heat sink. However, this structure has a limit to the amount of heat dissipation of the integrated circuit module and the entire circuit board assembly.